Fast and Furious 6 Review

The Plot:

Agent Hobbs decides to fight fire with fire by enlisting the help of outlaw Dominic Toretto and his team of legendary street racers to bring down a former Special Ops soldier Owen Shaw who is leading a unit specializing in vehicular warfare on a crime spree across the globe.

The Good:

Over six films the Fast and Furious franchise has entirely recovered its original cast and gradually evolved into a unique blockbuster brand of high speed heists and action adventure.  The series has driven itself thousands of miles away from the speed racing themed Point Beak remake it started as. It now arrives in London for a sixth outing with a well-established blueprint for emphatic box office success.

The winning Fast and Furious formula remains fairly simple but consistently effective. It’s an expensive array of supercharged supercars driven beyond the limits of physics by attractive people, with the help of a good soundtrack and reasonable CGI. Groomed over the past five films the distinctive style of the high octane vehicular action is now as polished and overblown as it ever will be.  The stunts may be ludicrously larger than life, but it’s at least in keeping with the tongue in check comedic tone of the latest film.

Thankfully Fast and Furious 6 is knowingly silly rather than just accidentally hilarious. It plays unashamedly for laughs and milks its best comedic assets like the Rock and Ludacris for all they’re worth. That comedy combined with the series trademark eye candy and even more frequent fight scenes keeps the film a watchable fun ride.

The film makes the most out of the hulking muscular presence of Vin Diesel and The Rock, as well as the considerable cat-fighting skills of Michelle Rodriguez and former MMA star Gina Carano.  Almost the entire cast finds themselves given an excuse for a bruising punch up this time, helping to plug any long gaps between car chases with physical action instead of prolonged dialogue.

Franchise fans will be pleased to see all the familiar faces back and perhaps especially happy to see Michelle Rodriguez return from the dead to re-join the cast. Newcomer Luke Evans also does a good job of posing a credibly imposing threat as the new villain of the piece. Of course Paul Walker and Vin Diesel retain all their usual charms.

The Bad:

At high speed in the middle of a well-orchestrated mess of vehicular mayhem and destruction the acting skills of the series large ensemble cast are adequate and largely irrelevant. Everyone’s at least capable of exclaiming ‘Oh Yeah!’ or ‘That’s how we do it!” whilst enthusiastically shifting gears for the next explosive CGI car stunt. Unfortunately, whenever the film attempts to drop the pace for some emotional drama the cast struggle to keep up.  Vin Diesel is simply more plausible and fun growling angrily at his car than mumbling sweet nothings at Michelle Rodriguez.

In the last Fast and Furious film agent Hobbs was insistent that you should never let these people get into cars (because it’s too dangerous), the truth is audiences might actually prefer it if you never let them out of the cars. Unless perhaps, it’s for a fight.

Speaking of Michelle Rodriguez, having died in one of the previous sequel, her return to life is handled with the kind of sophistication you’d expect from a daytime TV soap, complete with embarrassingly convenient amnesia. There are rare moments when even the biggest explosion can’t distract from how implausible such proceedings are.

While the film will undoubtedly benefit from the aggressive publicity campaign that promoted its release, it’s also worth warning that the endless parade of trailers and clips shared far too much of the film’s action scenes in their enthusiasm to lure audiences into the cinema. Even the film’s climax might leave you feeling a sense of slightly disappointed Déjà vu.

The Ugly Truth:

Fast and Furious 6 delivers a package of uncomplicated high speed action that will satisfy both existing fans of the franchise and most casual blockbuster crowds.  A steady stream of laughs, car stunts and action helps props up a simple plot and speed the franchise towards an inevitable seventh film.

Red Carpet Video Interviews with Vin Diesel the cast and director Justin Lin below from the world premiere in London:

Delivery Man Teaser Trailer

Here’s the first teaser trailer for Delivery Man a new comedy starring Vince Vaughn as a man who discovers he’s inadvertently fathered over 500 children after generously donating to a sperm bank. It’s an English language remake of a recent French-Canadian comedy called Starbuck by director Ken Stott. The new version also co-stars How I Met Your Mother & Avengers star Cobie Smulders alongside Chris Pratt and Jack Reynor.

This first glimpse does little other than setup the basic premise, but at least it manages to make it through a whole minute without making a single comedic reference to masturbation.

If you really can;t wait to see just what sort of laughs the full film will be delivering, check out the trailer for the French language original below:

Epic Review

The Plot:

Epic is an animated adventure loosely adapted from William Joyce’s classic children’s book The Leaf Men and the Brave Good Bugs. A teenage girl called MK finds herself magically transported into a secret woodland universe where she must join a fierce battle between the forces of good who keep the natural world alive and the forces of evil who wish to destroy it.

The Good:

Animation studio Blue Sky has enjoyed great success with their playfully cartoonish Ice Age franchise. However, Epic clearly represents a bold move towards tackling a more intricate and ambitious animation style.

From lingering shots of serene forest scenery to fast paced fantastical battles, Director Chris Wedge largely succeeds in creating a magical world of endearingly tiny proportions. From this fresh miniature perspective the film turns the familiar forest into a sprawling CGI landscape that aims to rival Avatar’s Pandora. It should particularly amaze and entertain younger audiences.

Epic also boasts an all-star cast, giving grown-ups the added fun of identifying the endless array of vaguely familiar voices. Amanda Seyfried, Colin Farrell, Chris O’Dowd, Steven Tyler, Beyoncé and Christoph Waltz all lend their eclectic vocal charms to the whimsical assortment of animated characters.

Enthusiastic performances by a strong cast certainly helps breathe life into a generic script and inject personality into what could easily have been disappointing character clichés. Comedian Aziz Ansari steals most of the laughs as a tough talking slug, while Farrell is stoically heroic as square-jawed  Leafman leader Ronin.

The Bad:

Though the ambition behind Epic is laudable, it still falls frequently below the impeccably high standards consistently set by Pixar, particularly when it comes to inventive and original storytelling.

If you strip away the effective distractions of pretty scenery and energetic voice actors, there’s surprisingly little actual plot or emotion left at the heart of Epic. Really it’s a fairly generic by-the-numbers storyline that feels transparently borrowed from countless other animated efforts, perhaps most notably Ferngully the Last Rainforrest.

Competent animation and the films other merits aren’t always quite enough to create the awe like sense of wonder which the film aspires to deliver and its title implies.

The Ugly Truth:

Epic offers plenty of pleasant delights for the eyes and ears that helps deliver a fun filled action adventure, particularly for younger children. However, those cartoon charms might not be enough to entirely distract more reluctant older kids and parents from an underwhelming reliance on overly familiar themes.

 

Handgun Director Tony Garnett Interview

This week finally sees the release of  cult classic revenge flick Handgun on DVD. Tony Garnett wrote and directed the brutal tale of a young woman ruthlessly seeking revenge after being raped at gunpoint. Perhaps best known for his work as a producer and co-writer of the beloved screen adaptation of Kes, Tony sat down to discuss the issues of sexual violence, gun ownership and vigilantism which remain as controversial today as at the time the film was made.

Here’s what he had to say…

What film makers influenced your work in directing Handgun?

No films in particular, but all the work has been influenced by post war Italian neo realism, like Bicycle Thieves; the wave of films from Eastern Europe, like Closely Observed Trains, the camera work of Coutard in, say, Breathless; and Joan Littlewood.

During the 1970s/80s there were a lot of female-lead revenge films, such as Lipstick and Ms. 45.  Did you watch many of them at the time and what did you think of them? If not, what about Michael Winner’s infamous ‘Death Wish’ series?

I did see some. I never comment on other people’s films – I”m not a critic.

What influenced you to write Handgun? And do you think other writers/directors of other revenge films were influenced by similar issues?

I don’t know about other film makers. I had gone to America to learn about it and to get refreshed through facing new challenges. I wondered why such an hospitable people would want to settle disputes by shooting each other. Dallas seemed to be a useful focus. I spent time there, researching. American history tells one much The USA was founded on genocide; it talks peace and has the biggest armed forces in history; its borders are secure and its in no danger; it is an oppressive empire, but believes it spreads freedom and democracy. The possibility of violence is built into its constitution. Rape is not about sex, it’s about power and control, and it’s the conduit for hatred. I put the two together, played with the tropes of the genre and then went in another direction. I wanted to learn about the American psyche. Revealingly, some distributor figures were disappointed because they said the “rape was a turn off, not sexy”.

You wrote, as well as directed, Handgun.  Would you have liked to direct a film from another person’s script or did you prefer to direct your own scripts? 

There was no plan. It just happened that way. I wrote it and then thought why not direct it. I prefer producing, really. Too much hanging about with directing.

Revenge films often see the main character empowered by a gun, the aptly named Handgun is no different. Do you think these kind of revenge films were about inherently ‘American’ problems or could they have been set in the UK too?

As you know, there is an epidemic of rape over much of the world. It is particularly used as a weapon of war, especially civil war. The handgun is apt for America, and symbolic of power. So rape and handguns complemented each other for my purposes.

Did you find a big difference between making films in the US and making films in the UK?

Film crews are the same all over the world. They use a common language. I took a couple of colleagues from the UK and the rest were from Dallas and New York I was very pleased with all of them.

You produced, and were one of the writer’s, of Ken Loach’s adaptation of Kes. Did the ‘kitchen sink realism’ influence your writing and direction of Handgun? 

I don’t know what “kitchen sink’ realism is. Sounds patronising to me. I’ve always wanted to respectfully research and then try to tell the truth about a particular world. I’m interested in the extraordinary which comes out of the ordinary, because no one is ordinary when you dig below the surface. Dallas or Barnsley – no difference.

Handgun is very critical of the courts system when it come to convicting rapists, but it also doesn’t hold up violence as the answer to violence. Do you think things have improved in the last 20 years in society? 

Rape is a difficult crime to prosecute. Things have not improved much, progress is slow and that is due to the male prejudices of the society as a whole, not just the police. The problem is not the courts. The problem is the frequency of the crime. The solution is in how we are all brought up, and more should be done in the schools, for instance, to teach us respect Our society lacks love and respect.

Karen Young had an extremely difficult role to play in the film. How did you find her to work with during Handgun?

Karen had many arduous emotional moments shooting Handgun. She is the best kind of actor, she is emotionally available. We shot in sequence. She never flinched from going through Kathleen’s journey. I was very proud of her.

If you remade Handgun today, what would you change?

Each time you finish a film, you watch it and say, I know how to do that now – too bloody late. So, of course , I would rewrite it, make it less on the nose, fight to keep the nuances I was persuaded to cut etc. I would change one or two of the cast, but overall I was happy with most of them, especially Karen. All the faults are mine.

Handgun is out to own on DVD this week as part of The British Film Collection, check out the official Facebook page here: http://www.facebook.com/thebritishfilm

Man Of Steel Official Character Posters

Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures have released some official character themed posters for Superman reboot  Man of Steel. Directed by Zack Snyder (300, Watchmen) and produced by Christopher Nolan, the new film stars  Henry Cavill (Immortals,Tudors)  in the role of Kryptionian superhero.

When a young Clark Kent learns that he has extraordinary powers and is not of this Earth he sets out on a lifelong journeys to discover where he came from and what he was sent here to do.  The hero in him must emerge if he is to save the world from annihilation and become the symbol of hope for all mankind.

The film also stars four-time Oscar nominee Amy Adams  as Daily Planet journalist Lois Lane, and Laurence Fishburne as her editor-in-chief, Perry White.  Diane Lane and Kevin Costner make their blockbuster return as Clark’s adoptive earth parents. Russell Crowe meanwhile steps into Marlon Brando’s shoes as Superman’s birth father Jor-El.

Squaring off against the superhero are two other surviving Kryptonians, the villainous General Zod, played by Boardwalk Empire star Michael Shannon  and Faora, Zod’s evil partner, played by Antje Traue.

Check out the new banner posters below: